Submitted by Matthew Schulkind on Monday, 9/28/2009, at 9:29 AM

Imagine that you are studying for a foreign language quiz.  There are 20 words vocabulary words on the quiz.  So, you start practicing the list.  When do you quit studying?  That is, when would decide that you knew the list well enough to take the quiz?  Let’s assume that you started studying well in advance so that time pressure is not a factor in your decision.  But, you do want to be efficient.  You could practice the list one million times, but it’s unlike that the last 500,000 would accrue much benefit to you. So, when do you quit?  Do you think there might be a better strategy than the one you typically use?